idea - BBG GmbH & Co. KG

idea8th Volume
idea
Magazine for customers, employees and partners
| December 2012
Major changes:
P-PEQ looks ahead
After pre-acceptance:
COMAU order is on its way
After the trade exhibition:
BBG attends
Composites Europe
In detail:
Apologies for typos
in previous issue
Dear Readers,
BBG has almost completed a busy and
in many ways successful year. We have
handled a record volume of orders and
have all been working flat out. In doing
so we have managed to complete the
orders on time and in accordance with
the high quality that our customers have
come to expect. This is something we
deserve to be proud of. My sincere thanks
to all staff for their dedication and to our
partner companies who have supported
us in many ways in dealing with the
challenges. I would also like to say
“thank you”’ to all our customers. Thank
you for the trust you have put in us and
for the exciting challenges that you have
set us many a time.
I also want to thank Christian Grams
who, after nearly seven years on the
board of P-PEQ in Changchun, now
hands over to Christian Fritz. He has
shown a lot of commitment in successfully
building our subsidiary company in China.
I wish his successor, whom most of
us have met in Mindelheim during his
induction phase, the best of luck!
To all of you a peaceful and relaxing
Christmas holiday.
For the coming year,
I wish you luck and
success both personally
and professionally,
and most importantly:
Stay healthy!
Yours,
Hans Brandner
Starting out:
Five new trainees
New additions:
New in the construction
department
Many thanks:
Family day and staff
recognition
Follow-up order:
Additional
bending-hardening
system for Lemken

Major changes: P-PEQ looks ahead
In 2006 Christian Grams, the just
appointed General Manager of the
then newly founded P-PEQ, spoke
of the expectations in his new job as
follows: "We aim to win new customers
with a combination of German
quality, a focused range of products
and services, an increased local
presence and shorter routes for delivery,
maintenance and repair."
Today, nearly seven
years later,
Christian Fritz
replaces him as
manager of the
subsidiary company
which has
since grown signifi
cantly. The
successor puts
it in a nutshell:
"P-PEQ is ideally
positioned!"
A well-earned
compliment to
Christian Grams,
Christian Fritz, P-PEQ which Hans
Photo: Private
Brandner, as
partner, wholeheartedly endorses:
"He has done an excellent job."
After a preparatory period in Mindelheim,
Christian Fritz flew to Changchun
in early November where he is
completing a handover period for his
new position with his predecessor
Company and
Contact Info
Publisher
BBG GmbH & Co. KG
Heimenegger Weg 12
87719 Mindelheim
www.bbg-mbh.com
idea@bbg-mbh.com
Phone + 49 (0)8261 76 33 0
Coordination
Martina Barton
Editorial staff
F. Stephan Auch, auchkomm
Corporate Communications
Next issue
25 March 2013
P-PEQ Team with partner Hans Brandner (2nd row, centre), current managing director Christian Grams (2nd row, right) and
future managing director Christian Fritz (1st row, second from the right)
Photo: P-PEQ
until the end of the year: 'We want to
make the changeover as smooth as
possible in order for things to continue
without interruption", says Grams.
Reliable and customer-oriented
Christian Fritz also regards "continuity"
as the most important goal
at the outset of his work: "The ball
must continue in the direction of the
goal! Trust between team and management
has to be preserved during
the changeover." As well as the
close cooperation with the now 30
employees, the mechanical engineer
cares about good relationships
with customers and their further development.
2012 brought major changes for
P-PEQ. The company only recently
moved into new premises. The
new premises of P-PEQ are located
in the Economical & Technical
Development Zone in Changchun,
a newly established suburb where
a lot of industry settled in the last
two years. Fritz is very satisfi ed
with the location and infrastructure:
"Everything is new and very well
connected." The spacious building
with an area of 2,400 square metres
elicits another compliment from
him: "The rooms are sparkling clean
and tidy." With the investment in two
new 3-axis milling machines and a
5-axis milling centre, also taken into
operation over the past few months,
P-PEQ has signifi cantly increased
its production capacity. "These investments
were urgently needed in
order to continue to best serve our
customers in China," says Grams.
Closer to customers through effective
service
Capacities were created in terms of
space, technology and personnel to
allow P-PEQ to continue to perform
its task well in the future. "It is extremely
important to provide enough
manpower to be able to service and
distribute BBG and P-PEQ products
in Asia", says Fritz. In order for P-
PEQ to be able to continue to perform
an effective service for machinery
and equipment of BBG in the
future, Christian Fritz plans to further
intensify the cooperation of the
two companies on a technical level.
China is familiar territory for 33-yearold
Christian Fritz. During his career
he acquired broad experience working
with internationally operating
car manufacturers through a variety
of positions with companies in the
Schaeffl er Group in Germany and
China. Before Fritz came to BBG in
preparation for its position with P-
PEQ, he spent almost two years as
an expat in Taicang in order to build
up a valve production facility for his
previous employer.
He is excited about his task at P-
PEQ, says Fritz, because this gives
him the opportunity to shape a company
according to his own ideas.
BBG idea wishes him every success.
2 idea
Die Kunden- und Mitarbeiterzeitschrift

After the trade exhibition:
BBG attends Composites Europe
While the organisers of the Composites
Europe trade fair, the event
for the composites industry in early
October in Düsseldorf, have reported
a growth in numbers, BBG
and other exhibitors were only partially
satisfi ed. Although the official
numbers - 8,000 visitors over three
days and roughly 420 exhibitors -
showed some growth compared to
the last exhibition, these numbers
From 8 to 11 October BBG participated in the Composites Europe exhibition
for the first time. The trade show team showed exhibits made from fibre-plastic
composites, as produced by customers using production equipment and tools
from Mindelheim.
Photo: BBG
were still on the low side. Therefore,
it comes as no surprise that
managing director Hans Brandner
has described the visitor response
as "rather modest".
Nevertheless the trade exhibition
has been worthwhile, says Brandner.
"We had promising discussions
with some serious prospective
buyers for plant, equipment
and tools for the mass production
of composite components."
For BBG, it was
the fi rst time exhibiting
at the Composites exhibition.
BBG showed
exhibits made from
fi bre-plastic composite
produced by customers
using BBG
production equipment
and tools. The exhibited
components were
from a variety of different
sectors: from the
motor industry to the
aviation industry and
the construction of airconditioning
and ventilation
systems.
After pre-acceptance: COMAU order is on its way
In detail:
Apologies for typos
in previous issue
Unfortunately, three mistakes have
found their way into the German
version of the last issue. The editorial
team of BBG idea would like to
apologise for this.
An eagle-eyed reader spotted the
incorrect spelling and has pointed it
out. Among other things, the editors
failed to notice that the exciting lecture
by the Dekra-Auditor Ralf Berens
on the subject of "Quality Management
System" was accidentally
headed "übererzeugt", rather than
"überzeugt".
"BBG idea" welcomes criticism, contributions,
comments and also praise
at any time. The team would also
like to hear about any changes that
would improve the newsletter. To
this end, a reader survey is planned
for one of the next editions.
Back in the May edition BBG idea reported
about the order by Comau Inc.
from Michigan/USA, which BBG acquired
together with its American distributor
Exsoltec. The order comprises
a complete production facility for
the manufacture of walls for aircraft
lavatories starting in early 2013. At
the end of October the customer carried
out the preliminary acceptance of
the facility that had been completely
assembled by the technicians for this
purpose to allow for the production of
the fi rst parts.
The system consists of a 4-column
mould carrier system BFT-U V2 with
a hydraulic mould clamping system,
five pressing tools for series production
of the various components,
a mould trolley that travels on an
air cushion and parking stations for
moulds.
Being able to implement fast mould
changes was of particular importance
idea
Die Kunden- und Mitarbeiterzeitschrift
to the customer. The customer's aim
is to produce the fi ve different wall
elements of the aircraft lavatories
back to back. This means that the
mould has to be changed after each
lavatory sheet. The wall elements are
manufactured as sandwich components:
A paper honey comb (PHC) is
inserted between two pre-preg cover
sheets of fi breglass. This results in
very solid yet very light elements.
The preliminary acceptance took several
days during which various representatives
of Comau were present
and attended detailed presentations
and demonstrations of the system.
As is normal, some adjustments and
fine tuning were still required. In the
end, the customer was very satisfi ed
both with the system and with the
samples produced. The system has
now arrived in the Philippines and is
being installed and put into operation
there by Exsoltec, supported by BBG.
BBG technicians in Mindelheim have recently built a
complete system for the production of fibre-reinforced
components for aircraft lavatory walls for preliminary
acceptance by the customer, on which the first parts were
then produced.
Photo: BBG
3

Starting out: Five new trainees
On Monday, 3 September, it was
that time again: For fi ve new trainees
their working life began with
their fi rst day at BBG. Madeleine
Mayer, who celebrated her 18th
birthday only a few days earlier, is
starting her vocational training as an
assistant for offi ce communication.
In winter you might meet the sporty
young woman from Mindelheim on
the piste, snowboarding.
The new trainees of BBG are (from left to right): Johanna
Höbel, Jonas Schobeß, Madeleine Mayer, Andreas Jäger
and Nadine Saiko.
Photo: BBG
For the first time, two young women
started apprenticeships in technical
disciplines. Nadine Saiko from Mindelheim
is completing an apprenticeship
as an electronics technician for automation
technology. The 18-year-old
lists city breaks among her hobbies.
17-year-old Johanna Höbel is training
to be a tool maker. The woman
from Mindelau particularly enjoys
celebrating carnival.
Jonas Schobeß from Mindelheim
is completing the same apprenticeship.
The 17-year-old can often be
found on the football pitch in his leisure
time.
19-year-old Andreas Jäger from Dirlewang
will probably have little time
for his hobby, football, in the next few
years: He has chosen a dual course
of study at the University of Applied
Sciences in Kempten resulting in a
degree as industrial mechanics and
a bachelor's degree in mechanical
engineering.
As reinforcement:
New in the
construction
department
Also on 3 September, Alexandra
Rehm started in the construction
team in the fi eld of mechanical
engineering. She will join the
team part-time as a technical
draftswoman. Resident in Sontheim,
she brings valuable experience
from her previous activities and is a
welcome addition to the team. After
work Alexandra Rehm's two children
look forward to spending time with
their mother.
Many thanks: Family day and staff recognition
Those who achieve success together
should also celebrate these together.
All people at BBG have given
their all in the past few months in order
to complete the numerous and
demanding assignments on schedule
in a quality expected by the customer.
As a result, we have succeeded
in mastering a record number of
orders. As a 'thank you' managing
director Hans Brandner invited all
employees and their partners for
dinner at the Landhaus Schützenheim
in Nassenbeuren on 14 September.
And on the following day all
the families enjoyed free tickets to
the Skyline-Park in Bad Wörishofen.
95 Years at BBG
During the evening Mr Brandner took
the opportunity to thank long-term employees
for their loyalty. He granted honours
to five people for a total of 95 years
with the company. Precision grinder,
Peter Trexler, has already spent four
decades at BBG,
his colleague Michael
Pongratz a
quarter of a century
and head of
sales Barbara
Neubauer, sales
and project manager
Bernhard
Employees who received honours: (from left to right) Barbara Neubauer, Bernhard Satzger,
Lars Schöllhorn and Peter Trexler. Michael Pongratz (not in the photo) and Hans Brandner
(right)
Photo: BBG
Satzger and
precision grinder
Lars Schöllhorn
have each been
at the company
for ten years.
Alexandra Rehm
Photo: BBG
Follow-up order:
Additional bendinghardening
system for
Lemken
The third bending-hardening
system has been completed for
a manufacturer of agricultural
equipment. Again it goes to Lemken
GmbH & Co. KG, one of the largest
German providers of agricultural
equipment for soil cultivation. After
the fi rst system had been delivered
to the new Indian plant in Nagpur,
which opened in the middle of
October, the follow-up order has a
relatively short journey to travel. It
is intended for the main plant in the
town of Alpen on the Lower Rhine
in Germany, near the Dutch border.
The system is currently being
installed on site; later Lemken will
use it to mould and harden a variety
of agricultural devices.
4 idea
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